


Love is a Fickle Thing

by Acacophony



Category: Borderlands
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Love Confessions, M/M, Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-02
Updated: 2015-12-02
Packaged: 2018-05-04 13:58:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5336597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Acacophony/pseuds/Acacophony
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vaughn finally tells Rhys he loves him, but not in the way he'd intended to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love is a Fickle Thing

**Author's Note:**

> Just a short, feelsy drabble

Vaughn felt Rhys’s hand travel over him as he thrusted into the taller man. It was always a little awkward because they couldn’t kiss very easily when they made love on the bed, and oh did Vaughn wish he could kiss him. He looked up and saw how the other shifted and moaned, arching his back so nicely, trying to force their hips together as if he wanted Vaughn to have more cock for him. 

 

He looked so put together as the president of Atlas, but here in the dark, in the private of Rhys’s room, Vaughn got to see him the way no one else did. A panting, sweaty,  slutty  mess. He loved every moment of it. His heart thumped hard at the sight of those mismatched eyes closing, one hand closing into a fist around the sheets. Rhys had reached his peak some time ago, but he’d insisted that Vaughn carry on. He wanted to feel the man climax inside him. 

 

And Vaughn delivered. He could never resist Rhys, and all it took was a fitful moan as he abused his sensitive prostate for the ex-accountant’s cock to jump and twitch inside of him. He wrapped his arms around him like he was afraid Rhys might float away. Vaughn didn’t really cry out and moan like his friend did, he just breathed deep, hard, sighing breaths against the man’s chest.

 

As the high from his orgasm melted away, though, he felt a certain emptiness creep over him. Months they had been doing this, sharing a bed, waking late at night, tangling themselves together. Vaughn made wild, passionate love to the man underneath him, but Rhys… he wasn’t sure what this was to Rhys. Maybe it was just a bit of physical closeness with a friend he trusted. He didn’t want to take it away from him, but he also knew that he just couldn’t keep doing this. Not when everything was so unclear. It was bad for him. 

A year ago, two years ago, back on Helios Vaughn would have given anything to have Rhys’s attention for this long, even if he had just been sleeping with him so that Vaughn would cheat on his payroll.  Not that Rhys would do that to me, he thought. They had both changed since coming to Pandora, and now, well… Vaughn had the self respect to stop even if it hurt. He cared about him too much, and without having any feelings back it was just sucking his heart and soul dry. 

 

Rhys noticed how distant the other man seemed as they cleaned up from their romp, throwing out the condom and wiping themselves clean with a towel. He was so lost in thought that he hadn’t even acknowledged the question he’d been asked, like he hadn’t even heard him. 

“Vaughn?” he asked again, “Hey, are you alright?” 

Whatever he was expecting when Vaughn raised his head to look at him, it wasn’t teary eyes. “What’s wrong?” He asked, leaning down to gently touch his cheek. He felt panic. Had he done something wrong? His heart felt like it was beating too fast and was perfectly still at the same time. 

 

“It’s just…” Vaughn bet down to pick up his pants from the floor, giving Rhys a view that at any other time would have been distracting. “I just can’t do this anymore, Rhys.” 

He felt his heart plummet through the bottom of his stomach, and a wave of nausea overtake him. “What?” He asked in a soft, unsure voice. “Do what?” 

 

“This!” Vaughn turned to him, and pulled his pants on haphazardly. He frowned at the other man, and realized he’d already said more than he wanted to, but now he had to keep going. “I… I can’t. Not if it doesn’t mean the same thing to you as it does to me. God, Rhys, I just… I know you’re lonely here, you were all by yourself for so long after Gortys was destroyed,” His heart pined a little, and he wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around the man he loved more than the moon itself. Instead, he hugged himself tightly. “But I can’t be the one you go to just for some human touch, you know? I…” His throat felt tight, but when he looked at his friend, he knew he owed him this explanation. 

 

Rhys’s own heart was racing, in a very different way from how it had been a few minutes ago. Not ten minutes ago Vaughn’s hands and lips had been on him and it had been so good, and now he was pulling all of that away. He listened to his friend babble on, and felt a spike of anger. 

“And you couldn’t have brought this up _before_ we got in bed together?” He snapped, unable to help himself. He felt tears rush to his eyes. He’d never had the guts to talk to Vaughn about this, and now it was coming back to bite him. The words that came from his friend next were not what he expected. Not at all. 

 

“I’m sorry. It’s just that…. I love you, Rhys.” Vaughn’s voice was kind of soft, kind of shakey, but he was definitely saying that outloud. Before Pandora, he never could have. Before he became the leader to the Children of Helios, Vaughn never would have dared speak something like that when it was all falling apart already. Now, though, he felt Rhys had a right to know, and… surprisingly, saying it made him feel a little better, not worse. 

 

The president of Atlas stopped short, his brain, heart, and body standing still with time as he tried to process that. “You…?” 

 

“I’m in love with you,” Vaughn said, more sure of himself. He avoided Rhys’s eyes, pulling on his shirt as he got ready to leave. “Too much to keep sleeping with you just for fun. I… I thought with time maybe you’d feel the same way, but I can’t keep it up anymore.” He just felt empty in their afterglow now, and that hurt more than this conversation.

 

There was an impossible silence. 

 

When Rhys finally moved, he felt as shaky and unsure as if it were his first time walking. He closed the miles of air between them and wrapped his arms tightly around Vaughn, bending down awkwardly to kiss his lips, holding him tightly so he couldn’t  pull away. 

  
“It was never just about fun, dude.” He gasped against his lips. “Not even once.”


End file.
